Protests shut down University of California Santa Cruz campus

(Reuters) - Protesters shut down the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz on Thursday, police said, on the fourth day of demonstrations that organizers said were over planned tuition hikes as well as police brutality.

Starting at dawn, demonstrators blocked a key intersection leading to the campus, the Santa Cruz police department said.

"There is no access to the university," the department said on its Twitter feed. "Avoid area."

The demonstration was still going on late in the afternoon, the university said.

The protests started on Monday as part of a nationwide call to "stand up for free public education and shut down the racist, classist, corporate militarized police state," according to a Facebook page hosted by a group calling itself Liberate our Education.